Ode to the Era
by Elanath Certhas
Summary: She knew that her adventures were 500 years in the past and that was where they'd stay. But when a figure from the past asks for help in the most unexpected way, how can she not return? She's still Kagome afterall. Time to save the world- again.
1. Prologue

AN: New story. Hope you like it, I'm just trying out some new ideas. Prologue designed to be short, other chapters will be long, however IMPORTANT NOTICE. I will **only** update when I feel like the chapter is satisfactory. I won't rush-write! : Oh! and if anybody would like to go over my horrible grammar for me then I'd be so happy!

-EC

**Disclaimer**: Inuyasha does not belong to this authress.

** Ode to the Era**

**Prologue****:** _The Beginning of Her Supposed End_

_'Most of the time, it is proper to introduce a character and then to go into the details. We all know who I am though- and we all know my story. Well… we're all about to anyways.'_

--

Kagome climbed from the top of the well with tears clouding her eyes. How could this possibly be the end? Was it even supposed to end in the first place? Three years of her life were gone now, and so was-

"Inuyasha." The sobs choked her and she felt the dull ache begin to tighten around her heart. In the end, everyone had been there.

--

Sango and Miroku fought side-by-side, Kirara and Shippou were a dynamic duo, and even Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha seemed to work _somewhat _compatibly. As for her partner- Kikyo- let's just say it was more like they were fighting NEAR each other, not as allies. In the last moment of battle though, they both shot identical arrows into Naraku's heart causing a blinding light to spread over the field they were in.

"HIT THE MARK!" Kagome had screamed as the holy power erupted from her fingertips.

**Everyone** seemingly stopped in that moment. The entire battlefield was silent, or that was how it seemed. In the end there were thousands of warriors on each side. So many of them had given their lives and it made Kagome feel so guilty knowing this could've been avoided had she not broken the Shikon no Tama into a thousand pieces.

So many allies lay dead by their feet. So many memories shared, so many heartbreaks… all for the tiny jewel she had gone and plucked from Naraku's remains. Kagome had sighed at that moment. What now? Would Inuyasha use the jewel to become a full-fledged demon? Or would she use it to make the jewel disappear forever?

"Kikyo," Inuyasha had hoarsely whispered. Kagome ignored the wave of pain that erupted down her body at that. She looked at everything but their embrace… Sango helping Miroku up, Shippou hugging Kirara and crying because it was finally all over, Sesshoumaru walking away- what? Wait!

"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome cried out over the battlefield. He glanced behind his shoulder at her and waited as she ran over. He raised an eyebrow in question at her. Kagome smiled and said, "Why are you leaving? Don't you want to celebrate the end with us?"

Sesshoumaru merely looked at her and said, "One does not celebrate an end of war. One must merely acknowledge that it has."

And then he walked away, leaving Kagome feeling like she was fifteen years old again witnessing him change into his true form for the first time, when she still believed he had the intent to kill her. She stared in his direction even after the distant trees swallowed him. This was the end… she just truly realized that.

No more sleeping under trees looking for jewel shards, no more- anything. It left a lump in her throat and a nauseous feeling began to settle in her stomach. Turning back to her comrades she hollowly walked over to the smiling group. Inuyasha looked at her and his ears drooped.

The moment had come… they all knew it was bound to but she had hoped for more time. He had not realized she was the one for him yet…

"Kagome…" Inuyasha said quietly, very softly, very _un_-Inuyasha. Kagome looked at him with vacant eyes. She knew his decision, and she had promised him the jewel in the beginning and she would keep her promise.

"Here Inuyasha- so you can become full demon… like I promised." She didn't even look at him as she held her hand out with the jewel enclosed in it. Moments passed and still the jewel lie on her outstretched palm. Giving Inuyasha a look of question, she noticed his ears flatten down. She swallowed heavily and said, "Won't you take it Inuyasha? I promised."

Inuyasha moved back a step and stood by Kikyo. "I made a promise too Kagome. I've decided- to go with Kikyo."

Kagome sadly nodded. She understood- really, she did. But her heart didn't, the damn thing felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest.

Kikyo stepped forward and closed Kagome's palm. "You must get rid of the jewel Kagome, so that no one may ever abuse its power ever again."

Kagome nodded once more and clasped it close to her chest. She looked to Inuyasha and gave him a watery smile.

"Thank-you Inuyasha. For everything… be happy, wherever you end up." She then turned to Kikyo and said, "I know we have not always gotten along but I hope that you can be at peace now. Our soul can rest."

Kikyo nodded and took hold of Inuyasha's hand. Inuyasha embraced her tightly as the ground opened up underneath them. Inuyasha turned once more to Kagome and said, "Now Kagome…"

Kagome felt the tears slip down her cheeks and nodded. Closing her eyes she held the jewel in her fingers and prayed. _'Please- hear my plea. I wish for Midoriko and her demon to be at peace. Let their battle end so that the world's may end as well.'_

--

The result had been surprisingly anticlimactic and when she opened her eyes once more, Inuyasha was gone and all she had left was a dull glass bead lying in her hand.

Honestly she had not known if she would be able to return to her time, but she had been. She knew though that she could never return to theirs. The proof of that was hanging so innocently around her neck.

Saying goodbye to the others- was so hard. Who knew what life held in store for them, and she would never get to see it. She would be living 'in the past' in the future. They could all be with each other, to talk about past times, to talk about her and of _him_. All she would have were her memories of them all. No one could understand what they all had gone through. No one could ever truly grasp the mixture of satisfaction and an overwhelming horror growing in her that it was in fact over.

She stared at the last remaining link to those times, the defining years of her life, the God tree. She traced the mark that once held Inuyasha and sobbed.

--

"Is she gonna' be okay Mama?" Souta asked a few weeks later, watching Kagome stare at the tree for the who knows how many time. Kagome's mother sighed and moved to watch over her daughter as well.

"She's had a tough life Souta. She's so young- but she's already done so much. Your sister saved the world you know and she's having a hard time accepting the end. She's a strong girl Souta so don't worry too much. She'll be fine."

Souta frowned. Kagome saved the world? Was that why Inuyasha hadn't been poking around the house lately, because the journey ended? When was Kagome going to go back to her friends? Was she?

Everything was so confusing- especially since Mama had said not to talk to Kagome about it!

--

Kagome sighed again for the thousandth time in the past few weeks. So much had changed, in her, and her surroundings.

' "_One does not celebrate an end of war. One must merely acknowledge that it has." Sesshoumaru… you were so right. Even if I did not completely understand what _you_ meant, I now know that one does not celebrate an end.'_

"Inuyasha…" Kagome felt her eyes begin to water once more. In the past few weeks all of her free time was spent under the God tree filled with thoughts of her _distant_ past. Everything she worked for, all the friends she made, the people she came to care for- were dead. Did they live long, happy lives? Did Miroku and Sango get married and have a trillion babies? Did Shippou grow up to be strong? Did _Inuyasha_ find peace with Kikyo? Did they ever think of her again? Had they forgotten?

She could never answer these questions, because all of her knowledge ended 3 weeks, 11 hours, and 7 minutes ago. She fingered the glass bead that no longer glowed with power hanging around her neck. She missed everything she had.

So it seemed this was her ending. Not of her life or anything dramatic like that, but of her adventures to be sure and of love. Now… now she had all the time in the world to do what had been so important while she was there, and now just- didn't matter.

_Her _end_… oh how wrong she was!_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter****One****: **_The Receive_

_Once upon a time… I believed that there was two sides, there was white and there was black- there were no gray areas. Now, now I know the truth. I know that there are RARELY __**any**__ black and white areas. _

* * *

'Three years, two months, and twenty-nine days.' It's been a long time…

Kagome stared up at the God tree in nostalgic reverence. It was the anniversary of that fateful day so long ago and she couldn't resist coming to remember it the way they _all_ should have been able to do together. It would have been the whole gang: her, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, Shippou, even Sesshoumaru and Kikyo, and-

"Inuyasha…" Whoever said that time heals all wounds must have been speaking strictly physical. Even now, when the rain would fall particularly hard she could envision that boy that haunted her dreams sitting on high branches looking at the moon. Every time she looked in the mirror though, she saw Kikyo more and more. She knew Kagome was in there somewhere, but she couldn't find her.

After she got over the initial depression there was still always that feeling nagging at the back of her mind. This couldn't be the end she knew it somehow. Sometime else in her life, something was going to happen, something big. Call it a premonition or call it deranged hope but she knew- she hoped, that something was going to happen; it couldn't really end like that could it?

She sighed and glanced at the well house with an almost instinctual anxiety. She hadn't even stepped inside since that inauspicious day. She shivered as a familiar feeling ran through her. She just shook it off as mind games playing with her and turned away from the tree. She had to get to school and she couldn't let sentimentality interfere with her studies.

_How much like Kikyo she had become_…

Regardless of what she went through in the past, this was her present and her future now, and she doubted if her professors would take, "_It was the anniversary of when I traveled 500 years back in time for the last time and with the help of my human, demon, and hanyou friends destroyed the most evil creature that ever walked the earth and saved the world_" as a proper excuse for being absent.

'I've got to go to class, and then go write that twenty page dissertation on the Rise and Fall of Feudal Japan. Oh if only these professors knew half of that which really happened.'

Kagome ran down the shrine steps and sprinted to the train station. With the Shinkansen train it would take about three hours to get to Kyoto and the sun was just now beginning to peek up over the horizon. Class started at about ten o'clock and she just really hoped she could get there in time lest her professor shut the door in her face again.

She's a History major specializing in Feudal Japanese culture and warfare- how masochistic is that? Why would she want to spend her life dedicated to promoting falsehoods about happenings of the past? Perhaps it gives her a sense of familiarity, makes her feels less stranded, to know that she can immerse herself in at least partial truths of that era.

Whatever the reason she chose to do that to herself didn't matter, she had to get to school! She shivered as she felt something pull at her, something timeless. It felt like…

'The _well_.'

That's ridiculous though, the jewel lost its power. _'But still…'_ Maybe she could try it one last time- no! She had to get to class. Leave the past in the past Kagome!

Frowning she glanced at the train and then behind her, feeling the pull even stronger now than before. She couldn't help but feel drawn to it, she was curious. Who knew what could happen…

'Maybe this is what I've been waiting for!' She thought oh so joyously. She knew it couldn't be the end.

Sprinting off towards the shrine she nearly collapsed from the lack of oxygen and the feeling of dizziness overtaking her body.

She shakily walked with her arm outstretched towards the well house. When she got there she slid the door open so slowly, and watched the slit of light erupt throughout the darkened space.

The well sat there so innocently, the feeling pulling her even harder now. The hope that spread in her chest at the moment was overwhelming and she felt the tears lining her eyes at the thought that- maybe there were adventures for her yet.

Sitting on the lip of the well she sucked in a shaky breath and debated on whether or not she would in fact jump. On one hand, if it worked what would she do? On the other hand, what if it didn't work? She wasn't sure she could take that heartbreak. She'd learned not to really hope anymore, and this one moment could take her back three years, to that very day.

The pull kept getting stronger though, and she knew that must mean something! Gathering up all the courage she had left in her body, and one deep breath- and she jumped.

There was no pull of magic though, and there was no blue sky above her. It was just dirty knees and sobs.

* * *

Several months after her relapse, Kagome was trying to forget that pull, and the fact that something unsettling was nagging at the back of her mind. Something wasn't right- she knew it. She had no idea what it was though.

There had been no mistaking that ancient pull of magic, but when she had jumped- nothing had happened. Why was there a pull and no action? What did the well want from her? What was she supposed to do! She was_ just_ Kagome now. She wasn't the Shikon Miko anymore and she needed to forget about adventure. It wasn't happening... so why couldn't she forget it?

"Inuyasha, what am I supposed to do?" She talked to him sometimes when things were really stressing her out, or she missed him particularly bad.

* * *

Kagome felt the thrumming of magic coursing through her bones and felt the need to pull her hair out. Being home for the summer was driving her crazy, the well house released an almost constant stream of calling magic and she refused to go anywhere near there. Not again.

So instead, she crawled from her window every night and stared at the well house with equal longing and reluctance in the stifling summer heat. It was heartbreaking- truly.

**So this is just a little piece of the 2nd chapter, I realize it's been entirely too long since I've updated but I'm working on that! More to come ASAP.**


End file.
